Karen slipped the jeep into first and hesitated for a while. If she ran into five bodies, what could that possibly do to her engine? The last thing she needed was to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with a damaged engine surrounded by these beings, as the radio and the TV had called them.
Fuck it!
She took off the handbrake, the gas pedal was down by two inches making the vehicle groan in fury, and there weren't many other options she had.
If she reversed, she would end up into a ditch.
She slowly brought up the clutch and the car moved and squealed towards the exit; she closed her eyes and could hear thud after thud as the bodies struck the jeep. She opened her eyes and cried out as she found herself on the wrong side of the road. She braked to a sudden halt, and looked behind her to see what carnage she had created.
Two of the individuals in the car park remained on the floor, two were struggling to get up, but the elderly lady was the one that shuffled towards the vehicle. They were unrelenting, had no fear, and only had one goal: to attack her and others. Maybe she missed the old lady, she supposed. But then, she swore she heard five quick thuds.
She pointlessly looked to her side to see if there was any traffic coming, and noticed ahead of her, a young girl with her mother that were out of harm's way and untouched by these things. They were both watching the event unfolding in the luxury of their own bedroom. The little girl innocently waved at Karen, which brought a surge of emotion to the young woman.
She looked into her rear-view mirror to see the elderly lady only yards away from the back of her vehicle. With her hand, Karen instructed the mother to take her daughter away from the window. She did just that.
Karen selected reverse, she didn't know why, she could have easily drove off and headed for home. She put her foot to the floor and the jeep shot backwards; the elderly woman's head was in line with the back window and made a noisy thud as her head made impact. Karen looked behind her and saw dark blood, almost black, cover the back window where the head received its massive trauma.
She used the back wiper to clear her view and saw the elderly lady writhing about on the floor in front of her. She saw some of the others making their way towards her and that was when she had decided to leave, before she dug an even deeper hole that she couldn't get out of.
She pulled the vehicle forwards towards the writhing elderly woman, and drove over her head; the head popped underneath and spilled out its contents, as the one and a half tonnes of jeep that rolled over her had finally put her miserable second life to a devastating end. Karen refused to look back at the carnage behind her, and could only imagine what kind of mess her beloved motor had caused, and what state the tyres were in.
It was time to go home. She looked over to the passenger seat at the tyre iron and knew she had to destroy Gary, if she wanted back in the house.
She had to do it.
Chapter Fourteen
Jack Slade and his new friend, Robbie, jogged their way through the hallways of the hotel. Jack felt uncomfortable doing this, as he didn't know what was lurking around the corner. Robbie assured him that the hotel was secure, and there had been no reports of people feeling unwell during the night and the chances of the things being in the hotel were nil, which was a blatant lie. Robbie felt he needed to protect Jack from this information from a selfish point of view. He needed to get home, and Jack provided the wheels. He didn't want to freak him out so much that the guest would lock himself back up in his hotel room, remain there, and hope for the best.
Robbie was officially coming to the end of his twelve-hour night shift and Jack thought that once his adrenaline wore off, his heavy colleague would be exhausted. They got to the staircase and jogged down flight after flight. It seemed to have taken ages to get to the bottom of the stairs. Robbie pulled out a set of keys. He unlocked the door that led to the reception area. It was lifeless, and Jack didn't remember it too much.
"Wait a minute," Jack spoke up.
He went over to the vending machine and kicked in the glass; he pulled out a couple of bottles of water and threw one to Robbie. Both men drank the bottles dry, threw the empty bottles to the floor before proceeding to the exit doors. They stepped out onto the barren streets of Glasgow City Centre, and Jack urged the security guard to follow him.
Jack pulled out his cleaver and Robbie did the same with the carving knife, both men were clearly shaking. They jogged past the building of Central Station and saw three cars that had been driven into one another. The cars were abandoned and the opened driver's side of the doors suggested that the drivers had fled on foot.
Was it due to panic? Or were they being chased?
They both turned left onto Argyle Street and headed under the bridge, heading for Jamaica Street. They both stopped running and turned their progression into a brisk walk. Jack by no means was a fit individual, and Robbie was glad of the change in pace.
"Hold up!" Robbie's voice echoed under the massive steel bridge where above, trains would normally move across. His voice echoed, piercing the quiet morning.
They continued to walk under the bridge passing numerous shops on their travels to Jamaica Street. Two figures appeared from around the corner about twenty yards away from the two men. They were definitely not living anymore. These two figures literally looked like death.
Both characters looked like they used to be young men. One was dressed in a white bloodstained tracksuit, which told the two men that this thing had already attacked some poor soul. The other individual was dressed in a suit.
As humans, the two of them couldn't be so different, but now they had changed, they were now both the same and had the same goal in mind. They stumbled towards the men; the one in the tracksuit leading the way, with the suited individual being three yards behind.
"Cross the road," Jack instructed. He could feel the agitation flowing through his body.
Robbie shook his head. "Nah, we can take 'em."
"Just cross the fuckin' road! I thought you wanted to avoid them!"
Robbie wobbled his head in defiance. "They'll just follow us. Besides, if we do this now, it'll desensitise us for the next time. There'll be a time when we can't run away from these things."
The suited figure fell over its own feet and was struggling to get up.
"Stand back," Robbie commanded.
To the two men's surprise, the tracksuit individual sped up with a decent pace. Robbie jumped back and brought up his carving knife, ready. Now, he was almost face-to-face with the thing. He could see the pale skin, like polished ivory, and the blackness around the lifeless, milky doll-eyes that were wider than golf balls, and the coal coloured lips. It was a hideous sight to witness.
Although initially he hesitated, he pulled his knife back once more and rammed it through the left eye socket of the being. Black tar-like liquid dribbled out, as his weapon mashed up the eyeball, but the creature was still trying to progress forward, its arms now grabbing onto Robbie's shoulders.
A surge of panic shot through the man, and he used the last of his strength to force the knife deeper into the eye socket. It worked. The thing twitched like an epileptic, as he pulled the knife out. The black liquid ran off the knife onto the floor; it fell to its knees and fell face down with a deathly thump.
The other corpse was still struggling to get to his feet, and once it managed to get on all fours, Jack stepped forward and brought down the cleaver. These were tools that belonged to a professional kitchen, so he predicted they would be sharper than the average household instrument, and he wasn't wrong.
The cleaver embedded four inches into the skull quite easily, however, trying to retrieve the instrument seemed a little more difficult. Jack struggled a while before the weapon came free, he received splash back from the skull, and was sprayed by the black gunk that spat on his face. It was just a sprinkle, but it was enough to make him stand in fright.
Jack screwed his eyes in confusion. Robbie patted him on the back and pulled out a hanki
e. "Don't worry, I don't think you can get the virus by their blood hitting your skin, or whatever it's supposed to be. If you get it in your eye or an opened wound however…" He glared at the gentle black spray that Jack was wiping off his face with the hankie. Robbie nudged Jack and pointed at the suited-being corpse. "No wonder he fell over, look at the state of his ankle."
Jack threw the hankie to the floor and took a look. The ankle was twisted so badly that it had turned ninety degrees to the right, facing inwards.
Said Jack, "He probably did it when he was in human form, running away from those things."
Robbie agreed. "Maybe it was the twisted ankle that cost him his life. Hard to run from these things when you're in that state."
Jack shook his head. "I couldn't believe how quick the other one sped up, when he was heading for you." Jack was still panting and said to Robbie, "I'm gonna have to get home soon, and get drastically fit. These fuckers are not as docile as they look. Like an alligator, they seem lifeless, until they attack you. I'm knackered already; that was hard work killing just one of them."
Robbie looked up. "I'm trying to think if there's a gun shop in Glasgow."
"A sword would be better. It's quiet, and you don't have to re-load a sword." Jack shook his head. "Let's just go, the car park is just around the corner by the St Enoch Centre."
Robbie nudged Jack and pointed to the floor. Jack could see his mobile phone smashed in two pieces and he mumbled an expletive under his breath. He picked the thing up but immediately dropped it back onto the floor once he knew it was defunct.
The two men both bent over and wiped their utensils on the clothes of the deceased. They continued to walk under the bridge on Argyle Street, and finally came to Jamaica Street that was situated to their right. To their left was Union Street, and they both noticed seven figures shuffling about further up near the Burger King restaurant. They looked down to the rest of Argyle Street, which seemed devoid of life, human and the others.
They strolled down Jamaica Street, getting near the River Clyde; the car park was to their left which was situated around the back of the Matalan clothes store. They ran around the back and went inside the multi-storey car park and began to jog up the ascending road that curled round like a helter skelter.
"What floor is it?" Robbie asked with what little breath he had left, his voice echoing through the concrete-sheltered car park. His belly swung to the left and right like a pendulum, as his feet slapped the concrete with each step.
"Second," Jack shouted back, he was ten yards in front of his new friend.
"Thank fuck!"
Robbie stopped and placed his hand on his knees, he was exhausted. His panting was hard, and there didn't seem to be any sign of his body recovering.
He thought to himself that maybe he should just wait for Jack to come down with his car, as it seemed frivolous that the pair of them needed to run up to the second floor, but Jack was already way ahead of him and had disappeared. For a brief panicky second, Robbie thought that maybe Jack would go without him. In a situation like this, it was pretty much every man for himself. Still looking up the steep road, Robbie began to cough. He then yawned and began to stretch out his arms.
He suddenly felt a hand on his thigh, which made him shoot up, straightening his back. He turned around to see three creatures almost ambush him. They looked like they were teenage girls, and seemed dressed in attire to suggest that they had been clubbing, but they were now not of human form.
Where the fuck did they come from?
Robbie lashed out manically with his knife, catching two of them in the face, although the wounds were only superficial. He kicked one of them that was wearing a mini skirt and it fell over. The one nearest, felt Robbie's wrath, as he brought down his carving knife that embedded deep into the top of the cranium of a blonde girl.
Fuck, they're strong!
The scantily dressed thing immediately fell, and he felt the bite of the other that had its hands on both of his shoulders and had bitten through his uniform and into his deltoid. He let out an angry shriek and pushed the girl over easily, thanks to the fact they were on an uphill and Robbie was higher than the rest on the incline. They both clambered back to their feet, and Robbie somehow managed the energy to run up to the remaining rest of the road. A Vauxhall Meriva pulled up beside Robbie, and Jack ordered him to get in and Robbie duly obliged.
"What happened to you?" Jack screamed.
"Fucker bit me."
"There are more of them? Maybe I should go out the proper exit, rather than down this road again."
"Nah." Robbie shook his head. "The proper exit has safety barriers, you would have to ram them to get by."
"But I'm gonna have to ram those things to get past the other way."
Robbie looked at Jack with demonic eyes. "Are we really having this conversation? Just fucking move. Let's get to your house first, so I can get myself bandaged up. I don't want the missus and the kids to see me like this. I hope you've got alcohol back at your house; this wound may be infected with all kinds of shit."
Jack hit the gas pedal and headed back down the way they had ran up and sped at twenty around the curly road. He almost stopped when he saw the two figures, as his instincts told him to come off the gas and hit the brake. He hit the gas pedal harder and saw the two female things bounce off the car and roll along the ground like thrown dice.
"Well, that was fun." Robbie winced, and held onto his bleeding shoulder.
Jack shook his head. "This is such a fucking weird day. This is possibly weirder than the time I was sleepwalking as a teenager, and my dad woke me up and found me in my sister's room as I was about to piss in her ear."
Robbie, still clutching his wound, gazed at Jack in disbelief. "Thanks for sharing that."
"Sorry."
Chapter Fifteen
They both travelled with their windows down; the cool air was a welcomed feeling as the sweat trickled down the officers' backs. Once they got to a residential area, Jamie informed Janine that the windows would have to go up and they would have to make do with the air conditioning the van had to offer.
Janine looked around at the countryside they were driving in, and had gone by this way every day mostly, and never had time to appreciate how beautiful the area was. It was also a great area for a prison. If they had had escapes, there weren't many hiding places for the cons to use. The nearest residence was a mile away, and finding the escapees would be no problem as there was no building to hide in, no crowd to be lost in, or any vehicle to break into to enhance their escape.
They had only been travelling for three minutes and Janine had an announcement to make to Jamie before they went any further.
"You're gonna have to stop. I need the toilet."
"Seriously?" Jamie frowned at his partner, the corner of his lips dropping towards his chin.
Janine descended her head, and made a nodding gesture.
Jamie looked around; they were still in the countryside, everywhere was flat and the sign of trouble was non-existent. Even though it was early days, if they did need to stop, it may as well be now. "I suppose I'll go as well, seem as though it's clear."
Janine was still a little paranoid that Jamie could drive off and leave her, but her trust of him had grown a little, and she could hardly sit and piss herself.
He stopped the van and allowed Janine to jump out first. The engine was still running, and while he was waiting to kill some time, he tried the radio stations once more. By the time he had exhausted every station on the waves, Janine had returned.
"Right," Jamie opened the driver's side of the door, "my turn."
Janine took a swig of water from Jamie's bag and wondered how her family were. She unbuttoned her top button and took off her blue clip-on tie. She had noticed Jamie had already done this. It was too hot for the attire that they were wearing, and it didn't matter now, the world had now become a different place, they had no governor to answer to and had no job either.
Jamie
noticed that Janine had literally emptied her bladder behind the vehicle as the golden puddle sat there a yard away from the back of the van. He wondered why she chose that particular area. Didn't she trust him? Was she paranoid that he would watch her using the exterior mirrors?
He didn't want to dwell on it too much, as they hardly knew one another and only engaged in conversation on a professional basis when they were at work. He chose to use the side of the road and peed on the grass; it was a short affair as he didn't need to go that badly, but he thought he may as well try while they had stopped because he wasn't sure when would be the next available time to go. He returned to the van.
The van began to move again, and as they approached a tight bend that veered to the right, the pair of them took in the scenery and appreciated it. They both looked at a farm that was to their left in the distance and both peeped at one another. Were they thinking the same thing?
Go to the farm and beg the owners to put them up for a few nights while all this blows over? The thought had caressed Janine's mind, but Jamie himself suspected that they were onto a winner driving a secured van with food and water. Janine would rather have saved the fuel and just sat in the prison car park with the van locked and munched on the food they had, but Jamie was convinced there would be more food and fuel just waiting to be taken before thinking about some kind of refuge.
The van took a left and as it appeared on the new road, they could see four figures in the distance walking with their backs to them. They both knew they were prisoners immediately, as all four were wearing the same clothes. They all donned blue trousers and red T-shirts.
Snatchers: Volume One (The Zombie Apocalypse Series Box Set--Books 1-3) Page 8